Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and an image processing method, and in particular relates to a technique for reducing an image data amount. The present invention also relates to an image capture apparatus and a control method thereof.
Description of the Related Art
There are known image capture apparatuses that divide the exit pupil of an imaging lens (imaging optical system) into a plurality of pupil areas, and can generate a plurality of images each corresponding to one pupil area with one shooting operation (U.S. Pat. No. 4,410,804). These plurality of images have a parallax therebetween (parallax images), and are thus information indicating the spatial distribution and angular distribution of light intensity, and have properties similar to those of data called light field (LF) data.
Ren. Ng, et al., “Light Field Photography with a Hand-Held Plenoptic Camera” (Stanford Tech Report CTSR 2005-02, 2005.4.20) discloses a refocusing technique for changing an in-focus area of a captured image after shooting, by using LF data to reconstruct an image in an imaging plane (virtual imaging plane) that is different from the imaging plane at the time of shooting.
In the case of a configuration in which a pupil area is divided using an image sensor in which the photoelectric conversion area of one pixel is divided into a plurality of (n) portions, a maximum of n parallax images are generated in one shooting operation. Therefore, the data amount of the image is n times an image that is generated in the case where the pupil area is not divided (normal image). Furthermore, if the parallax images are combined and an image corresponding to a normal image is added in consideration of compatibility with a device that cannot handle parallax images, the data amount will be n+1 times the normal image.